One simple way to organise your entire digital life
You've probably heard of PARA before. You might even be one of the many people who use it. Today I’m going to talk about why I don't think it works — and what I do instead.
This is for anyone who has a desktop full of random files, can never find the document they’re looking for or has tried other organisational systems without success. If you implement what I am about to teach you, your life will never be the same again (genuinely).
The PARA Method and why it doesn’t work
PARA is an organisational structure created by Tiago Forte for managing your digital life. It’s broken down as follows:
P — Projects
A — Areas
R — Resources
A — Archive
According to Tiago, projects are short-term efforts in your work or life that you're working on now, areas are long-term responsibilities you want to manage over time, resources are topics or interests that may be useful in the future and archives are inactive items from the other three categories.
In the PARA method it can be hard to know whether something should go into a project or an area.
Now, I don’t know about you, but naturally I think of everything in my life in terms of areas — work, personal, money etc. These are all dedicated, defined and distinct areas of my life.
So, in my system, projects don’t come before areas — projects are inside areas.
I also don’t think a folder for ‘resources’ makes sense either. In the PARA method, resources can easily become a dumping ground for anything and everything causing it to quickly become a confusing mess — the exact thing we’re trying to eliminate.
My system is built on 5 principles:
Principle 1: Everything starts with an area
As I just touched on, the top level in my system is Areas. I have 6 areas:
Work — career, businesses, side hustles etc.
Leisure — personal interests, hobbies, travel, entertainment etc.
Money — income, expenses, taxes, savings, loans etc.
Life — personal documents, home, transport, mind, body, digital life etc.
People — relationships, friends, family etc.
Media — photos, movies, music, books etc.
Principle 2: Archives live inside areas
In the PARA method, archives exist on their own, just like projects. Whilst I can understand the logic of wanting to keep all archived things out of the way, it actually becomes unhelpful when everything is dumped together. You lose the context of where things came from and what area they belong to.
In my system, archives sit in each area like so:
Work ├── Archive └── [sub folder] Leisure ├── Archive └── [sub folder] etc.
Principle 3: Projects live inside areas
If you’re working on a project, that project belongs to an area, so why not have it exist in the area?
One thing to note is that not every area will have projects. In my experience, it’s just the areas of work, leisure (for example, your latest DIY project) that have projects.
Work ├── Archive ├── [Project] └── [sub folder] Leisure ├── Archive ├── [Project] └── [sub folder] etc.
Principle 4: Numbers create priority order
Without adding numbers into your system, you’re forced to view your areas alphabetically or by recently modified which doesn’t provide any order to your system. That’s why I recommend ordering your areas by priority.
Default alphabetical order: Leisure Life Media Money People Work
Number priority order: 1 — Work 2 — Leisure 3 — Money 4 — Life 5 — People 6 — Media
Note: Your priority order may look different to mine.
Principle 5: Colours create instant recognition
Colour coding isn't just for highlighters. When all your folders are the same default blue, your brain has to read every label to find what it's looking for. When each area has its own colour, you navigate by recognition rather than reading — the same way you'd spot a red book on a shelf without reading every title.
I colour code each of my six areas so that at a glance, without reading a single word, I know exactly where I am and what I'm looking at.
The real-life system I’ve been using for over 6 years
Here is what my folder system looks like (feel free to use it as a starting point for your own system):
1 — Work ├── Archive ├── For the Do-Gooders <- project ├── More Mindful Life <- project ├── Better than reels <- project ├── Clients ├── Portfolio └── Work admin 2 – Leisure ├── Archive ├── Personal projects <- projects ├── Personal interests ├── Travel └── Events and entertainment 3 – Money ├── Archive ├── Income ├── Savings ├── Expenses └── Tax 4 – Life ├── Archive ├── Personal Documents ├── Mind ├── Body ├── Home and transport └── Digital life 5 – People ├── Archive ├── [My partner] ├── [My brother] ├── [My parents] └── Friends 6 – Media ├── Archive ├── Photos and videos ├── Movies ├── Music ├── Docs └── Books
Why this system works so well
When you create order, things become simpler. You can find things quicker. You eliminate what I call ‘micro-frustrations’.
Everything has a place and everything is in its place. And, if something doesn’t have a place yet (such as a new family member), it’s easy to know where it belongs (People → Family) because you’ve simplified your digital life into easy to understand areas of your life.
Where to use this system
The main place we’ve discussed today is your folder system on your computer. But I’ve also been using this system in my calendar since I first created it. This is extremely helpful to see at a glance what time I’m giving to the different areas of my life.
Recently a friend of mine colour coded their calendar for the first time ever and expressed how much benefit they had gained from it. I remember being surprised and realising that this is actually something not everyone does!
How to implement this for yourself
So, if you haven’t already gone ahead and copied my folder structure, here’s how you can set it up for yourself:
Decide on the areas of your life
Add an archive folder into each area
Add your sub-folders and projects into each area
Assign each area a colour (for mac users you can right click on a folder and assign a coloured tag. For PC users, ask Google!)
Assign each area a number
Start organising all your documents into their relevant folders
If this feels like an overwhelming task, don’t worry. You don’t have to do all of this at once. Start with the main areas and start to move things across gradually. If you’re not sure about what sub-folders to include, start organising your folders into their areas and your sub-folders will emerge naturally.
It’s also important to note this isn’t a fixed structure. I used to have an area for study when I studied — now it’s archived. Just as life changes, your folders will also change.
Taking it further
In a future post I will talk about how I implement this structure in my favourite note-taking app (Obsidian) and how you can too. My note-taking system features two extra folders so keep an eye out for that if you’re someone that works with knowledge or wants to set up your own ‘second brain’.
The bigger picture
Whilst this entire post has been focused around digital organisation, there’s actually a deeper reason for why it’s worth doing this:
You're creating mental clarity and freeing up mental bandwidth. That bandwidth can go towards more important things — getting to know yourself more deeply, understanding what you want out of life, and actually living it. Less time managing digital chaos means more time enjoying your life.
